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Landmark Judgment – India rejects Boehringer’s AIDS drug patent plea

Chandigarh:P Kousalya, President, Positive Womens Network, India shared that we opposed the patent application on syrup nevirapine hemihydrate to ensure that it remains available for our children and to make sure that the government doesnt say it is too expensive to provide and stressed that Nevirapine is an important anti-retroviral drug, invented in 1989, and was not patentable in India and accessing appropriate paediatric formulations of AIDS drugs have been a particular problem around the world, and we hope that this decision can be a step towards making them more available.

The Indian Patents Act contains some important safeguards designed to ensure that frivolous patent applications are not granted at the cost of public health. These include section 3(d) of the Patents Act, which prevents many new forms of known substances from being patented unless there is a significant improvement in efficacy, and section 3(e) of the Act, which prevents mere admixtures of substances from being patented.

Landmark judgments on patents which would benefit HIV patients, Indian Patent Office on Thursday rejected a patent application filed by multinational Pharma company Boehringer Ingelheim on Paediatric form of anti-AIDS drug nevirapine. The company was trying to claim a patent on the syrup form of nevirapine, which is particularly important for children living with HIV who are unable to swallow tablets. This is the first decision from the Patent Office on the 13 patent oppositions filed by public health groups against AIDS drugs, and will set an important precedent for the pending patent applications, industry expert pointed out. If the patent had been granted, price would have increased for children suffering from AIDS. In May 2006, the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and the Positive Womens Network, India had filed a pre-grant opposition against the companys application.